A persistent chirping sound from Eryn’s tablet served as Piper’s wake-up call. Investigating the noise, Piper stretched a vine out across the room, and snatched the device. Piper wasn’t the most familiar with affini tech, but she could recognize a chat app. Someone was texting Eryn. Of course, the little affini was still tuckered out, dozing in Piper’s lap. A unique opportunity now presented itself: Piper could read the messages, see what kinds of conversations affini had when they didn’t think any terrans were around. Then again, she wanted to stay on Eryn and Bramble’s good sides for obvious reasons. Plus, it just seemed mean; Piper wouldn’t dare hurting Eryn’s feelings like that. With that in mind, Piper gently nudged Eryn’s shoulder. She stirred, released a tiny squeak, and nuzzled closer; her eyes fluttered open, and focused in on Piper. 

Just like that, Piper was smitten all over again. Forcing a little sophont this adorable to leave such cozy contentment behind felt criminal, but the damage had been done. After a few blinks, and a yawn, Eryn’s expression became one of shocked embarrassment. Cheeks flushed, eyes bulging, Eryn scrambled in place, before dislodging herself from Piper’s embrace, and sprawling backwards onto the couch. In some futile attempt at recovering the scraps of her dignity, Eryn picked herself up, straightened her shirt, and sat on her heels, back straight and head held high.

“Ahem,” she began. “Good um—good morning… Piper… dear? I hope my presence through the night proved… comforting and soothing, and helped you achieve a nice, refreshing sleep,”

For Eryn’s sake, Piper just nodded, remaining silent until she’d managed to stifle the slew of giggles caught in her throat. She coughed, then gave a radiant smile. “Of course, Eryn. Having someone so sweet, and soft, and cozy to hold was wonderful. It was sort of like curling up against a plushie, but even better since plushie’s don’t make such adorable noises.” An errant vine tickled Eryn under the chin; the affini squirmed, but otherwise remained steady. “And you, Eryn? If I recall, you were very upset last night, and I would hate to hear you still slept poorly despite my efforts. I don't want to return to an exhausted and stressed body.”

Somehow, Eryn went even more rigid, her eyes widening as the color drained from her face. “Well, uh, I certainly—the drugs and the—how should I say—the company of my ward? went a long way to keep me comfortable, and relaxed, and… safe. Thank you for that.” Biting her lip, Eryn’s eyes idly wandered the room. She then snapped her fingers, and looked back at Piper, trying, and failing to give the impression she’d only just happened upon her thought. “Ah! You woke me deliberately, right? Did you need my help with something? I’m always happy to help a terran in need, especially you, my… dear… not currently very little Piper.”

This time, Piper couldn’t hide her amusement. She allowed her body to shake with musical laughter, then shook her head. “Not exactly that, my dear currently quite little Eryn. I woke you because of this.” She laid the tablet before Eryn. “Someone was texting you, it woke me, but you were sleeping far too deeply, and cozily for it to wake you. I thought it might be important, but it felt rude and rather skeevy to snoop through your private affairs.” 

“Ah.” Eryn nodded sagely, taking the affini-sized tablet in her tiny terran hands, and beginning to tap away at it. “I can see why you’d defer to me on matters such as this. Socialization, and correspondence can be a very anxiety inducing affair for you terrans, with all your traumas and neurodivergences. It’s very good that you recognize that, and allow an affini like myself to take responsibility for your needs.” She continued nodding and tapping, her speed and intensity ever increasing. 

“And don’t I appreciate your desire to not violate my privacy. I’ll be sure to mention such thoughtfulness to Bramble when it comes time to review your behavior. You’re a um… a very good girl, Piper. But also, remember that I had every intention—and, of course, still currently have every intention—of taking you as my floret… y’know, if things work out that way. So really, there is no need. I would never keep any secrets from my pet, unless it would be for your own good, in which case you would not be able to simply happen upon such secrets.” By this point, she was less nodding, more whipping her head up and down, and Piper began to grow alarmed. Thankfully, as Eryn’s words ran dry, her nodding started to slow. Her hands started to tremble, and the rate of her incessant tapping petered out. The tablet slipped from her hands, bouncing harmlessly against the couch cushion. “Dirt,” she muttered.

“What’s wrong, Eryn?” Piper asked, unable to hide her worry.. 

“Well, you see I—basically—uh. When the plan was still for me to make you my pet, I gave all my friends the news: I was taking a floret. They were ecstatic—I’d been kind of putting off getting one, and they were starting to worry about me. Because they were all so excited by my news, and also really just because it’s kind of customary, I invited them all over to introduce my floret. Introduce you. But, well, now…” she trailed off, gesturing back and forth between herself, and Piper. 

Genuine relief radiated out from Piper’s core; she loosened, and nodded. “I see,” Piper answered. As usual, Eryn was being her silly, over dramatic self. “So let’s cancel.” 

Eryn shook her head. “If we cancel, we’ll need an excuse. And like I said, everyone is very excited for this and maybe a little bit worried about me. Any excuse will be scrutinized; someone is going to get suspicious. And if someone gets suspicious, they’ll investigate. And if they investigate, they’ll ask Bramble. And if they ask Bramble, no force in this universe could ever prevent it from gleefully telling everyone who asks what happened. And if they find out I’m trapped in this teeny floret body, they will spend the remainder of our time stuck like this, and then, for good measure, the remainder of my immortal life teasing me relentlessly about it.” Maybe, just maybe, Eryn was catastrophizing. If she was, Piper had no idea how to change her mind. 

“So what do we do?” Piper asked.

“The only thing we can do,” Eryn replied, her voice filled with solemn determination. “We pretend that you’re me, and that I’m you. And that you became my—I became your?—happy floret. Just like they’re expecting.”

Reeling, Piper raised an objecting vine. “Hold on, I dunno how to pretend to be you.”

“Seriously?” Eryn rolled her eyes. “They aren’t gonna quiz you on anything. Just improvise, if they think something is off, say Bramble’s machine left you feeling weird, or say you didn’t sleep last night ‘cause you were too busy petting me, or point out something cute about one of their florets… or me.” She lowered her head, grumbled, and crossed her arms. “It’s not hard. Besides,” her face reddened. “It’s not like they’ll be paying much attention to you anyway.”

“Huh?” Piper cocked her head. “Why not?”

Sighing, Eryn shook her head. “You don’t understand. The entire point of a social gathering like this is for a bunch of affini to gather their florets together, and pet them senseless. The only caveat here being that since I’m the… ‘new floret,’ the salmon’s share of affection will go to me.” She grimaced, then clenched her fist. “No matter, it’s the only way. We need to get ready. I’ll start by cleaning up your body, and brushing your body’s teeth—and there’s no need for you to offer to help with that.”

Piper narrowed her eyes. “Why would I offer to help you with those things?”

“No reason!” Eryn cried, the red in her cheeks deepening as she leapt from the sofa. “In the meantime, take my tablet. I’ve pulled up the profiles of all my friends, and their florets. Be a um, a good girl, and familiarize yourself with them.”

Whatever had gotten into Eryn, it was certainly cute. The girl scurried off, and Piper held up her tablet, scrolling through the profiles. She could do this; there weren’t many. First up was Alruna Ixxen, and her floret Felicia. Naris Olen had two florets—something called a pinnate pair—named Alek and Ginger. And finally, Peony Gallum along with their partner Topaz Gallum had a floret that appeared to be some sort of alien bee named apis floretea—a bit on the nose. By the time Eryn emerged from the bathroom with a big, fluffy towel wrapped around her tiny frame, Piper felt confident she could keep track of names and faces. She gave Eryn a warm smile. “What’s next?” 

“Well, I can’t walk around naked. There’s also a certain matter of… expectations when it comes to floret clothing. Of course, my hab is already fully stocked with suitable clothing for a floret. I have taken the liberty of selecting an outfit for myself. Unfortunately, this body is too small for me to reach it. I will need your help, if you would follow me.” Her movements rigid, Eryn led the way to the hab’s master bedroom, where a grand bed, and oversized wardrobe awaited. Eryn sighed, and cleared her throat. “Hab, open the wardrobe.”

On cue, the speakers above came to life. “Hmm… I think you can ask a little nicer than that, cutie!” it replied.

An agonized groan erupted from Eryn’s throat. “Hab, open the wardrobe… please.” Silence followed. “P-pretty please?” 

The AI emitted a disapproving buzz, then replied. “Piper darling, I’m programmed only to obey polite, and earnest pets. My tonal analysis software says you’re not being very sincere, sweetling,” it chided. “One more time, but I need you to mean it, tell me what a helpless pet you are and how sorry you are for being rude.”

Eryn cast a mortified, pleading glance toward Piper, and was greeted by a merciless smirk. “I think the AI is right, ‘Piper.’”

Even the most withering glare Eryn could muster really just read as adorable. In the end, she relented, and again faced the wardrobe, but not before muttering a quiet, “I’ll remember this, l-little one.” Eryn sighed, and cleared her throat. “M-miss hab? I um—I’m very sorry I was rude. I’m n-nothing but a helpless, weak pet and I fully depend on the grace of my M-Mistress and her whims, which includes your programming. Will you p-pretty please open the wardrobe so I can look cute for my… for my owner?”

With an affirmative beep, the wardrobe clicked, and the doors swung open. Eryn exhaled, and slumped forward in relief. “When I’m back in my body,” she growled. “I’m going to take that computer, send it to an AI lab, and have them grant it sapience. Then I’m going to break it’s will harder than a superheavy command-ship breaks realspace during an intragalactic jump.” She tensed, then shuddered; Piper decided to be merciful, and remained silent about the obvious tent poking out of Eryn’s towel. 

“A-anyway,” Eryn stammered, “clothes.” Shuffling aside, Eryn gestured for Piper to approach. As she did, Piper caught her first proper look at the wardrobe's interior. It was absolutely brimming with myriad colorful, soft, lacy clothing: mostly dresses. “Grab that one there,” Eryn commanded, pointing toward what had to be the dullest piece of clothing within: a flannel pajama set; It wasn’t even a onesie. 

“Hmm,” Piper tisked. “Now Eryn. You know yourself, and your friends far better than I do, so you’ll have to forgive me for questioning you. But can you honestly tell me that is the outfit you would select for me, were our positions reversed?” 

Staring at the floor, Eryn reluctantly shook her head. “I—no. No it isn’t." 

“And what would you pick?” Piper pressed.

“I’d, well—I’d probably pick something closer to maybe… that?” She pointed toward a frilly, lacy white dress, with light pink trim. “Or—no actually I’d pick—” before Eryn could utter another word, Piper plucked the dress from the rack, stripped Eryn of her towel, and pulled the dress over her head. She groaned, and blushed. “Fine, I guess this one would probably have been somewhere in the top ten.”

With a low chuckle, Piper gestured back toward the main room. “You know dear, maybe you should take this opportunity to reflect on how you were intending to treat me.”

“It’s different!” Eryn insisted, pouting.

“Oh? And how—” 

“It just is!” She shook her head, defeated. “Ugh, you wouldn’t understand. I’ll explain later. For now, I need to eat.” 

Through the duration of her breakfast—which apparently affini tech could just compile out of thin air—Eryn kept casting nervous glances at Piper from across the table, as though she were half expecting Piper might do something, though Piper had no idea what. Once all was said and done, Eryn led Piper back into the front room, and faced her, wearing a pensive expression. “You… you’re going to be insufferable about this next part, aren’t you?” 

Yes, whatever it was, Piper had every intention of being insufferable about it. “Why, I have no idea what you could ever mean, little Eryn. Insufferable how?”

Eryn rolled her eyes, and flailed her arms in a sweeping gesture at Piper. “Like—like that! That’s how!” She crossed her arms and stamped her foot. Cute. “You know what you’re doing. And ugh, your stupid emotional, easily flustered terran body is playing right into it too.”

“Oh? So I’m making you—”

“Don’t. Even.” Despite herself, Eryn blushed, and fidgeted in place for a moment, before forcing a stern look, and continuing. “This is serious. You could be in trouble too if they find out our secret, you know. Bramble thinks this entire situation is endlessly amusing and is probably treating this whole thing as the latest in a long long line of absurd ‘experiments.’ Not every affini will be so permissive when it comes to a captured feralist soldier running around in an affini body. So shape up.”

Piper deflated, for all the fun teasing Eryn was, properly upsetting her felt awful. Like she’d failed at an important duty. “I’m sorry, go on.” She gestured. 

On cue, all of Eryn’s bluster and rigidity evaporated as her eyes fell, and her face flushed all over again. “R-right well um—so here’s the thing. Part of pretending we’re each other is keeping up appearances. Of course, you can’t call me Eryn anymore, but that’s not enough. You’re going to have to treat me like a pet. That means—well—being basically as indulgent, and doting, and overbearing, and condescending, and flirty as possible. If you’re ever in doubt, just follow the other affini’s lead. For the most part you should probably avoid calling me Piper too often. You should use lots of pet names. Little one, petal, sweetling, darling, dearest—that sort of thing. On the other vine, I’m going to have to play the part of the floret. Which means…” She trailed off, her lips pursed in a pout and trembling. 

“Which means?” Piper asked, unable to keep that teasing edge from creeping back in. 

“Which means, I’ll have to call you Mistress. And also, I’ll have to convincingly come off as, well, endlessly reverent and adoring toward you? Seeing you as the most important, wonderful, awe inspiring person in the entire universe?” Eryn shuddered. “This brings us to a certain problem; there’s no way I’m going to be able to pull that off so long as even a shred of my dignity is left bouncing around inside this malleable little terran brain I’m stuck with. That means drugs. You’ll wanna use the same ones as last night, but I don’t think they alone will be enough. So um, here,” she stepped forward, and grasped a vine, tracing her finger down to a bright blue flower. 

“What’s this one?” Piper asked.

“Well, ever wonder how I was able to learn so much about you and make all those preparations for your arrival when you were only just captured?” A touch of unsease slipped into her tone. “That’s because you were actually captured five days ago. You were kept in a life support pod, fading in and out of a semi conscious state that whole time. The reason why, is because I wanted to make sure your body would be ramped up for every single class of recreational xenodrugs. That includes the more… intense ones. The strain contained within this particular flower,” she traced a finger along one of its petals, and shuddered, “is categorized as a Class-J.”